Vietnamese film wins best documentary in PyongyangVietnamese film wins best documentary in Pyongyang

14:41′ 04/10/2006 (GMT+7)

Director Minh Chuyen (second from the left) at the festival.

VietNamNet Bridge – A Vietnamese documentary film, Cha, con va nguoi linh (The father, the son and the soldier), won the award for best film at the 10th International Film Festival in Pyongyang, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The film tells the story of a war veteran’s family in northern province Thai Binh, with three generations suffering from Agent Orange.

Director of the film, Minh Chuyen, said that the film impressed judges at the festival as well as local audiences. Many people were in tears while watching it.

In a scene, Thoa a girl from Thai Binh, who is also an Agent Orange victim, is taken to America for treatment. Being excited that her health problems were solved, she exclaims, “The American people are very kind!”

As he did not expect that his film would win the prize, Chuyendecided to go back to Vietnam at lunch time on September 22. But he was very happy when informed in the evening on the same day that his film had won the cup for Best Documentary Film.

Also at the festival, a German film won the Best Movie Award for Drama, a Chinese film won the award for Film with Best Music and a Russian film won the prize for Film with Best Costumes.

According to Chuyen the total budget for making the film was only VND30mil (US$1,875).

The film earned Chuyen the Consolation Prize at the Seoul Documentary Film Festival last year.

During his week in Pyongyang, Chuyenwas busy making another documentary film, “A Moment in North Korea”, which is scheduled to be broadcast later this month on the state TV channel VTV 3.